Shield Distribution Officers are fun, they let you use your Brace For Impact as a kind of poor man's RSP. It's remarkably effective.

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- The Rom. Hyper Launcher would be interesting for the set bonus, but I'm not sure it makes much sense with the limited firing arc. The Quantums are easier because I only need to be at the right angle for a moment, IIRC that Hyper Launcher needs some time to spit out all three projectiles.

Once the hyperplasma launcher starts firing, you can turn away from the target. Though there is currently a thing where the hyperplasma launcher may start reloading when it's brought into its firing arc even when it hasn't fired. I'm not sure if this is a bug (sure feels like one), but it's worth considering if you plan on relying on your torpedo for fast shots as you turn through arcs.

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- Not sure what to put in the last open rear weapon slot. Another Quantum is probably best. I read not to put more than 6 beams for power reasons. I only have 5 beams, but the KCB needs energy too (And I need the KCB for the Borg set bonus, free Nadeon Inversion now and then). Suggestions?

4 single cannons, 3 turrets, cutting beam.

But if you really like your beams, consider putting 3 arrays and the cutting beam on the back, with 2 arrays on the front along with both the romulan hyper-plasma launcher for casual use and something like the Breen transphasic cluster for a knockout punch.

Or, dual photon torpeodes on the front combined with some projectile weapon officers will give you some serious artillery potential when pounding on big targets from extreme range.

Or just stick a turret on the back. Turrets don't eat much power.

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-Not sure which Engi consoles are worth considering overall. On my escorts Eng slots are always my dumping grounds for universal consoles, I never use anything more than one neutronium if even that.

Personally I just can't fly a cruiser with less than 3 layers of armor. But then, my philosophy of commanding a cruiser is that retreating is what other ships do. If you're all about the STF runs, then my recommendation is a minimum of 3 layers of neutronium. But 3 neutronium plus 1 of Monotanium will really take the sting out of the borg super-torpedoes.

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- If I use +threat consoles (I'm not sure I can pull aggro off escorts without them), which variant would be best? On my escorts I use Plasma Infused ones for extra procs, but maybe I should consider shield or hull healing variants for the cruiser. Thoughts? Also which Science stat should I boost with them?

My preference is
+Shield Emitters
+Threat
+Hull healing

Shield emitters helps all of your shield heals, the others are kind of pointless unless you're a science ship. And the hull healing is much stronger than the shield healing for a cruiser, because your hull is worth far more due to damage reduction from armor.

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- Also unsure about what to run for Deflector/Engine/Shield. My first instinct would be to go full borg. I might get access to Elite Fleet Shields soon too. I read in some older cruiser build threads that the Aegis Engine was often considered too. Is that still an option or is that outdated?

Aegis set is outdated and not that amazing. It gets you a little bit more defense value, but the fancy adaptive shielding gives you HULL resistance, not shield resistance.

A lot of people like using the Borg engine and deflector (gives automatic self-heal), together with the MACO shield. The MACO is Resilient, which makes a huge difference for tanking survivability since only half as much is getting through your shields. It doesn't recharge as fast as the Borg shield, but the Borg shield tends to get instantly shredded by the extreme levels of badness in STF missions. Their capacity just isn't very high.

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Originally Posted by hereticknight085

The next one is the Fleet Excelsior. She costs 2500 zen (unless you have the VA version, in which case she's only 1, which brings her cost to equal that of the FAC+Regent Combo)

Worth pointing out that the Fexcel costs more in the fleet store because it comes with a bonus feature: An expanded list of transwarp jump destinations. This does make life so much more convenient.

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her BOff layout is... sub-par. That extra engi ensign is almost useless in many cases, and it also puts her damage output below that of the Imperial.

I used to think this, but after going with 2 copies of EPTW and an Engyteam1 in the ensign slots I have to say it works out fine. I use 2 Maintenance Engineers to get the cooldown down to 15 seconds.

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Another possible option (as was pointed out earlier in the thread) is the Galor.

And of course, the D'kora Marauder. The D'kora is something of a public secret, because its combat performance is significantly higher than it looks... this is due to its unique "Battle Mode" feature. This mode gives a bonus of +30 to your weapon skills, an additional +10 power to weapons, and +30% to your turn rate. So, from a performance standpoint, it's basically like a 12-console ship (built in RCS, plasma manifold, and tactical console). The D'kora is a little more fragile than the other cruisers mentioned because it only has a CMD engineer and LT engineer, but it's a very very powerful ship.